But on this Saturday in Knoxville, Guarantano made his case to be the starting quarterback for the Vols in Charlotte and beyond. The sophomore tossed a handful of sharp throws, had a pair of touchdown passes and took every snap with the first-team offense after starting six games a year ago.

He completed 15 of 27 passes for 226 yards and two touchdowns to lead the first-team offense to a 34-7 win. He put Marquez Callaway in position to make an acrobatic touchdown grab in the first quarter and capped the game with a 29-yard touchdown dart to Eli Wolf, who reached back to reel in the slightly inaccurate pass.

Sophomore Will McBride, who played late in the season last year after an injury to Guarantano, took the bulk of the second-team snaps. But his day was largely erratic and he started slowly, missing many throws high and out of bounds. McBride also received little help from his side's rushing attack, which generated only 14 yards compared to the 134 posted by the first-team offense.

He finished the game 6-for-18 passing for 71 yards — a 35-yard touchdown late in the fourth quarter adding to the stat line.

Tennessee quarterback Will McBride (17) throws a pass during the Tennessee Volunteers Orange & White spring game at Neyland Stadium in Knoxville, Tennessee on Saturday, April 21, 2018.

"The quarterback's got to do a better job of giving them a chance," Pruitt said without specifying a quarterback. "How many times do you see a guy throw a ball and the ball goes out of bounds? Me, as a defensive coordinator, I love that. Long foul balls.

"We are going to throw it out there, but we need to keep it inbounds and give the guys a chance."

On Saturday at Neyland Stadium, Guarantano did more of that, as he worked with first-team receivers Josh Palmer, Brandon Johnson and Callaway. He made strong throws to each at various points, showing especially good chemistry with Palmer in the first half.

It made for a good impression for Guarantano in his first showing since ending last season, during which he completed 61.9 percent of his passes for 997 yards and four touchdowns.

"I’m definitely going to continue to work my tail off and hope for the best," Guarantano said after UT lost to Vanderbilt on Nov. 25.

He seemingly has done that in the months that followed and appeared to take a visible leg up over McBride heading into the summer. But Pruitt has intentions on keeping the quarterback battle alive for the next few months, bringing a veteran presence into the pro-style attack and putting everyone in position to compete to be QB1 for the Vols in September.

"There's guys running open on both sides," Pruitt said after Saturday's game. "When you've got a good pocket, you got to step up there and throw the ball and you've got to catch the ball. Some of that is throwing it to the right people and getting opportunity to throw it to the right people.

"At the same time, I go back to being able to run the football. You rush for 14 yards on one team, you are going to have a lot of long-yardage situations. So everybody knows you are going to throw it."